My Weekend: 'I am slowly coming around to this ‘work/life balance’ concept'

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work?

I grew up in Cork city, in Tivoli first, by the Silver Springs, and then the family moved to Ballinlough when my parents opened a restaurant in the old Ballinlough House. Tivoli, Silver Springs, Baile na Locha… all those exotic and oft watery names. We lived just off the Well Road (more water), and my earliest memories are, happily, of playing alone or with my siblings and, later, with friends.

I remember the angst of wanting and waiting to make friends. I wasn’t up to my neck in friends as a child, and I spent a lot of time wishing I would make friends. I played football with Albert Rovers, first in Kennedy Park and then made the big switch to Douglas Hall when I was about 12. I remember my hands being frozen after being on the sideline in Kennedy Park and thawing them out by the fire in Neil Crowley’s granny’s house on Albert Road afterward. I loved Neil’s granny’s house. I can still see her blazing hearth.

I moved to Dublin to form a band in the early nineties with a fella from Cork (Mark Wilkins, who called everyone “fella”.)

I met my wife Muireann in Dublin on a theatre job, and in 2010 we formed a theatre company which, with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland and the artistic vision and work ethic of Muireann, is still going. We are currently rehearsing a new show, Kafka’s Doll by Frances Kay, in the wonderful Mall Arts Centre in Youghal. A team of theatrical collaborators from Cork and beyond make Youghal by the Sea the perfect place to be.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

I am most content at home with my wife Muireann dining in and being served toast by our immaculately trained cocker spaniel, who has worked in some of the finest doghouses in the world.

Unless of course I am performing in a theatre, surfing the electric energy of a Friday night audience (a very happy place for me). Cork audiences have that rare tendency to talk to the performers on stage. Which is fine by me.

I’ve been heckled, only in Cork. Once they don’t call me the L word, and I don’t mean Louis.

Lie-ins or up with the lark.. which is it for you?

It’s both. When you make theatre, the hours do not conform to regular timetables. It’s not just about being on stage of an evening.

I might drive the van to visit a very fine set builder in Wexford to collect a piece of stage scenery, visit costume stores in Dublin, rehearse in Youghal in lovely East Cork, collect a designer from Cork Airport while all the time learning lines or a piece of music. Often in the one day.

When I can lie in, I do so with great serenity of mind and can commit fully to it, but if I need to be up with the lark then I’m up with the lark and no larking about!

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

Constantly. However, I am slowly coming around to this ‘work/life balance’ concept that wasn’t around in my younger days.

Muireann and I have spent many Sundays loading and unloading costumes, sets and props in order to be ready for a rehearsal room on Monday morning.

Being on stage before an audience is the tip of the iceberg when you run your own company.

If money was no object, where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

I’d love my dad to see Athens with me so I could show off my Greek. Always trying to impress him!

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

Whiting Bay in West Waterford and yes, still within sight of Co Cork, of course.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

I wouldn’t say no to it, it just doesn’t happen that often. Although a cards night in Mark Daughton’s house did threaten to catch on. A very enjoyable evening, we must rekindle it.

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

I recently discovered the joy of bottle picking where one digs in a suitable spot and uncovers a hoard of glassware that has been discarded down through the centuries.

It’s basically a class of dump but one that predates plastic. Think gorgeous, queerly shaped bottles, ceramics, earthenware, bits of tin and most of it, tantalisingly, broken.

But when you reach into the earth and tweak and twist and tempt to the surface a piece of thick blue glass and then discover it to be fully intact, entire of itself, not a crack nor a chip — oh, the thrill.

Like landing a fish. Only you don’t have to put the glass back. No, you wash it and buff it and ogle it and imagine those pre-plastic days and the people who purchased it, used it and then flung it into a ditch.

Entertain or be entertained? If it’s the latter, do you have a signature dish?

Hot buttered toast.

We have so many places to eat out in Cork — where are your go to spots for coffee/ lunch/ special meal?

The Boardwalk cafe, Youghal for coffee and a toastie. The Long Valley Bar for a sandwich and a pint. Luigi’s Youghal is a great pizza joint and much more besides.

Sunday night comes around too fast... how do you normally spend it?

Packing a van or feet up watching bottle picking on TV.

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

Six am. Unless I worked the whole weekend, then Monday might get me a lie-in.

But no lie-ins till this new show, Kafka’s Doll, is up and running.

Anything else you are up to right now...

I recently appeared in the film Stupid August, written and directed by Cork movie maker Padraig Trehy.

This black and white, silent movie with a remarkable score by Cork groovy maker John O’Brien has been invited to many festivals around the world, and hopefully we shall get to attend one such festival. Meanwhile, Theatre Lovett are crafting future theatre adventures.

Theatre Lovett’s new play Kafka’s Doll previews at the Theatre Royal Waterford (August 28) and makes its world premiere at the Abbey Theatre, Peacock stage, September 4 to 12, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2026.

The play, a new family show, opens up the world of Franz Kafka to young people and their older counterparts. Kafka’s Doll is written by Kafka expert Frances Kay (based in Cork).

Starring is Cork’s Louis Lovett and Cork circus star performer Cormac Mohally.

See: https://theatrelovett.com/shows/kafkas-doll